It's hard to imagine life before the BlackBerry. Well, maybe that's exaggerating. But it's certainly true we depend on pocket-sized devices that fulfil the vast bulk of our communication and contacts needs.

BlackBerry developer RIM (Research In Motion) has licensed its "push e-mail" client on a range of devices, giving models such as PalmOne's Treo 650 a run for their money.

The 8700g, RIM's latest BlackBerry, is marginally less broad than its predecessor, but features the same slick click-wheel beloved of gadget fans. This time you get to enjoy a 64K colour screen with a 320x240 resolution, a faster processor, supplied by Intel and support for EDGE (Enhanced Data-rate for GSM Evolution).

We were impressed by the Insight Icon option, which was cleaner and more compact than the default.

Wireless can be turned off to preserve the battery life, but you'll need the radio function to be active if you want to communicate via GPRS, the technology that enables you to send and receive e-mails while on the move. The BlackBerry's batteries have some serious staying power: it was ready for action even after it'd been on standby for over a week.

For those who don't require the Enterprise e-mail setup, there's an option to redirect email to the device. Be aware, though, that messages deleted from this setup are not retrievable. Internet access, full phone functions, searchable contacts, memos, task lists and Bluetooth are all included.